


Only You

by chinuplilpup



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, also it's kind of sad?, september is fucked up and mind-trippy and it's the worst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 20:11:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11585328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chinuplilpup/pseuds/chinuplilpup
Summary: The mesh is weird. Mako has his first kiss on September.





	Only You

**Author's Note:**

> there are references to some things in the september arc, but no big spoilers because it takes place before any of the events in counter/weight.
> 
> mako and tower are both very much 16 here. i gave it the T rating mostly because they smoke space(?) weed.
> 
> title from strawberry swing by frank ocean

It rained yesterday. 

Mako’s hair is doing the thing where each individual wave and curl separates and frizzes out. His head feels heavy too, like his hair absorbed the heavy raindrops. 

That might also be because of the stupid test he’s studying for. He’s been in his dorm room for probably hours and his eyes hurt, his _brain_ hurts. He does know a _little_ bit more about the military history of OriCon than he did when he started, and a lot more about a bunch of people who have gone missing at fancy dress parties. 

None of them have gone missing from September yet. There’s a name at the bottom of the list who disappeared from the Institute in a few years but there’s no link. The rest are all from planets he doesn’t even recognize, let alone cares about. 

He exits all of the article links and is left looking at his mostly blank dorm walls in the mesh. The shiny purple sunglasses on his poster wink at him. If he doesn’t get out of here soon he’s going to die. 

His roommate March hasn’t been around for the past—while. Mako can’t really remember. He knows he has a roommate because there’s a second bed in the dorm and a game console that isn’t his. He and March played a cool pirate treasure-hunting game on it one time, and they’d already had characters and like a thousand coins so they must actually have done it more than once. March’s character design had a badass longcoat. 

Mako tries to think of March’s face and can’t. He probably went home for the weekend. 

 

Mako slinks off his bed and is halfway out the door before he realizes it’s the _weekend_ and he’s in his _uniform_. Almost his entire closet—like most of House Rosemoon’s—is just uniforms, which sucks when everyone else is wearing clothes they brought from home. He hates Rosemoon, he hates being the best and brightest and having to look like the perfect student at all times. He’s probably going to flunk out anyway. 

He throws himself at the closet—he almost trips over a game console except he’s still in the mesh and clips over it with a blink. 

Mako shimmies out of the godawful salmon pants that have grass stains everywhere. The uniform skirt at least has shiny silver trim on it, and it looks _okay_ if he rolls up the waist a few times so that the hem is above his knees. And then the only actual item of clothing he owns: a bright green shirt that says ‘Waay Out’ on the front. It doesn’t light up anymore, which is why Lazer Ted let Mako have it. Mako cut the neckline really deep. It’s pretty great. 

He spares a moment to look at himself in the mirror. His hair is frizzed out beyond control but he runs his hands through it a couple of times and, in the mesh at least, it looks messy on purpose, which is cool. Then—finally—he zips out of his room. 

He doesn’t have a plan for where he’s going or any friends to look out for, not really. Usually he runs into someone he knows on campus pretty quickly. Mako knows a lot of fun people, and he’s cool and fun, so they usually find something to do. 

It’s cloudy outside and the trees shake in the wind. Goosebumps rise immediately on his arms and Mako puts the corner of House Rosemoon in between him and the wind, then rubs his arms and hops in place a bit. Groups of people walk past on the path. Mako recognizes some of them and doesn’t recognize others. Then he sees someone he knows and actually wants to talk to.

“Hey, Tower!” 

Tower’s shoulders twitch and he swivels his head. Mako runs into his line of vision. Tower raises his hand in a wave.

"Hey!” Mako says. “Whatcha up to?"

Tower shrugs and turns it into a half-hearted gesture in the direction of the forest. "Thought I'd relax, you know, clear my head."

Mako tilts his head. "Shouldn't you be studying?" 

Tower shakes his head but he grins. "Man, what do you think I'm trying to clear my head _of_?" 

Mako lets go of his laugh. "No, same, same."

"Yeah, how is studying going?" 

"Well I was studying and then I was literally dying so,” Mako says, “I came out here."

Tower nods sympathetically, and then Mako nods in commiseration, and they don't have anything else to talk about. Mako casts around frantically for a topic and Tower's shoulders hunch forward. They both start speaking at the same time. 

"So, um," Tower says.

"Won't it be cold in the forest?" Mako says. 

Mako talks a lot faster than Tower.

"Oh—yeah," Tower says, "I've got a jacket, though." He does. It’s a blue and a little puffy, and faintly ridiculous in a way that Mako loves.

Mako keeps nodding.

"Um, so. Do you, like." Tower swallows and looks at his shoes. "You could tag along. Come with me, I mean. If you want?"

Mako bites his lip and rocks back on his heels. "Uh," he says. 

Tower frowns a little.

"I don't _really_ have any plans." Mako rocks forwards again. Tower's frown disappears, and Mako erupts into a smile.

"Yeah, sure! Study break!"

Tower smiles.

 

Not far into the forest Mako starts to shiver. The trees block any sunlight that might provide a drop of warmth, and water from yesterday's rain drips from the leaves down and lands hard on his head. 

Mako takes shelter under a large branch and waits for Tower to catch up with him. Mako considers himself both wiry and nimble. He slipped ahead of Tower pretty early. 

“Need a rest?” Tower says with a grin.

“Just waiting up for y—” Mako yelps as a massive raindrop plops right onto the back of his neck and slides under his shirt down his spine. He does a not-entirely-voluntary full-body shiver. His foot slips on the mud just then and he falls backwards, toward the mud and leaves. The backward momentum is jarring like one of those falling dreams that jerks you awake. 

 

Mako walks a step or two in front of Tower through the forest. A few minutes in he feels like a ragged wet kitten, like the freezing damp has already seeped into his spine. 

"You cold?" Tower asks.

Mako glances back over his shoulder. "Nah."

"Are you sure? You look cold."

"I'm fine!" Mako jogs forward a few steps to show how fine he is. He trips over his own feet and pitches hands-first into the mud.

 

Mako walks through the forest next to Tower. It’s cold and Mako can’t tell if it’s raining again or if the trees are still dripping with water from a previous storm. 

Tower has his jacket, and Mako’s outfit looks amazing too, but he’s covered all over in goosebumps. He tries to hide his shivering but Tower keeps stealing looks at him from the corner of his eye and probably notices. 

“Are, are you…” Tower trails off. 

Mako waits patiently. Sometimes he has to wait for Tower to filter words from his brain to his mouth. It can get annoying but right now the air is crisp and the forest is beautiful, nothing like his stifling dorm room. He skips ahead a little to try to warm himself up in the meantime. He glances back over his shoulder and Tower quickly looks away. 

Mako can feel himself blush and since Tower is looking studiously at his own feet, he gives himself a second to grin really wide. Then he skips back. 

“Do you want my jacket?” Tower says.

“Nah.” Mako shrugs, and it turns out that keeping up with Tower’s long strides, trying to suppress your shivering instinct, and shrugging is too many things to keep track of at once, and he stumbles over his own feet. 

“Woah,” Tower says when Mako stumbles into his side and grabs onto the arm of his puffy jacket with one hand and his elbow with the other. 

“I’m good,” Mako says, “I’m good.”

He lets go of Tower but doesn’t put space between them and neither does Tower. They walk a bit further, Mako’s arm pressed against the warmth of Tower’s. 

“Can I, uh,” Mako says. “Can we.”

Tower catches his hand and holds it. 

“What?” he asks. 

Mako feels hot up to the tips of his ears. He bites his lip to hide a grin. “Nothing. Your hands are cold.”

“Oh,” Tower says, “Sorry.” 

He squeezes Mako’s knuckles a bit, and Mako squeezes back. 

“Mine are too,” Mako says. “Here—” He jumps up and presses his other hand to Tower’s neck. Tower squeaks and jerks away, but not far at all because they’re still holding hands. 

“Stop, dude, I can’t believe you.” Tower is smiling. 

Mako grins and swings their joined hands. Then something staticky buzzes through the landscape and through his brain, like one of those falling dreams that jerks you awake. 

 

Mako walks through the forest a few steps ahead of Tower. It’s colder in the forest than it was on campus and he’s sure his hair looks like a drowned kitten from getting dripped on, but his face feels warm from the inside out. He slows down to a shuffle and Tower catches up with him. 

“Hey,” Tower says. 

“H-hey,” Mako says. His teeth click together a bit with the force of his shivering. “Holy shit. How long have we been out here f-for?”

“Dude.” Tower clears his throat. “My jacket'll be big on you but if you want—"

"I’m good!” The mesh skips as the audio from before replays. Mako’s teeth chatter. The forest shifts momentarily into what looks like an image of a different place in the same forest, and then it comes back. Mako blinks and looks at Tower, who is staring at his shoes and looks awkward and kind of sad. 

“Thank you,” Mako rushes to add. “Really! It's just, like, m-m-my outfit." He gestures at it, the uniform skirt and the shirt he got from Lazer Ted. 

"Oh.” Tower laughs. “I mean like maybe we should go back? Before you like, die?”

Mako waves it off. “I’m _fine_ -don’t-even-w-w _orry_ -about-it.” 

“Here, let’s sit at least.” Tower motions towards a tree a few yards away. Its roots are tangled around a massive boulder, and near the base of the tree there’s some space to sit on the rock. Most of its surface is damp but there are a few places where the dense foliage kept the surface dry. Tower sits next to a dry spot, and pats it for Mako to sit. 

Mako flops down on the freezing stone, maybe a little closer to Tower than he absolutely has to be. Tower is warm. Mako likes being close to him.

“Got something to warm us up.” Tower reaches into a pocket on his jacket and pulls out a joint. 

“Oh fuck yeah, Tower!” 

Tower takes a lighter out of his other pocket and instead of watching his lips Mako turns his smile to the forest at large and says, “A walk to clear your head, huh?”

“Hey, you know it.” Tower nudges Mako’s hand with his. Mako’s skin tingles where they touched as he takes the joint and brings it to his lips. He cups his other hand around it, trying to leech some warmth away. 

They pass it back and forth for a while and Mako does end up feeling warmer, mostly because almost without noticing it he or Tower have scooted closer. Their arms and their thighs are pressed together. 

Tower is saying something about visiting his family next weekend. He’s turning seventeen and he’s going to have dinner with his parents and his little sister. 

“That’s cool,” Mako says. 

“Yeah.” Tower sighs. 

“It’s not cool?” 

“My sister’s great.” Is it Mako’s imagination or does Tower lean a little bit closer? “My parents, though.”

“Yeah?”

“They’ve just got all these expectations, you know?”

“Yeah.” Mako knows about expectations. Less about parents. 

He knows he _has_ parents. There were two people who raised him for a year or two before he was old enough to live in the dorms. He remembers their voices. When he was younger he used to assume they had blue-tinged skin like his, but that doesn’t really make sense since he knows he was adopted. He still sees his parents now that he’s at the Institute, but infrequently. When they’re not around they fade a bit, that’s all. 

“Yeah.” Tower sighs again. “I’ll just fail this history test and go work at Constellation Coffee for the rest of my life.”

“Consolation Coffee,” Mako says quietly. 

“Exactly!” 

“Aw, don’t worry, Tower. I’ll buy a coffee from you every day for the rest of my life. Your life. Our lives?”

Tower laughs. “No, you can’t, drinking Constellation Coffee every day is worse than making it.”

Mako laughs too and leans heavily into Tower’s side. His puffy jacket is soft and his touch even softer when he puts his arm around Mako’s waist. 

Mako sighs into the warmth and tilts his chin up to look at Tower. Tower is already looking at him. Mako thinks that maybe Tower might want to kiss him. But what if he doesn’t? 

What if he does? If he does, Mako wants to kiss him very, very badly. He tries to send out those vibes with his brain like, straight to Tower’s brain. What if Tower wants to kiss him and is waiting for Mako to do it and he thinks that Mako hates him because Mako is just sitting there? 

But what if he _doesn’t_? 

Mako is starting to freak out quietly, a bit, when Tower rocks forward. His eyes dart between Mako’s eyes and his lips and Mako’s heart pounds in his ears. 

The kiss is awkward and lightning-quick. They just bump their mouths together and pull back, not meeting each other’s eyes. Then they both collapse with laughter. 

Mako tucks his face into Tower’s shoulder and giggles. 

“That was,” Tower laughs. 

“Yeah.” 

“Hey, Mako.” Tower touches his shoulder. 

Mako looks up, and Tower kisses him again, a slow, gentle press of his slightly-chapped lips. It’s more like how Mako thought a kiss would be. He smiles so big it breaks the kiss, and Tower smiles back. Mako has never ever been more glad for fucking OriCon History. 

They walk back to campus when the sun starts to dip below the trees. The temperature drops even further, but Tower puts his arm around Mako and Mako burrows into his jacket, and it’s fine. It’s more than fine. 

Tower is yawning by the time they get to the dorms. Mako keeps yawning when Tower does, a feedback loop of sleepiness. There are still people out in the quad, mostly other students going back to their dorms for the night. Some of them say hi as they pass. Tower says hi back to few. 

“Hey, Maritime,” he says to a girl who rushes up the steps into House Rosemoon, and it reminds Mako of something.

“Do you know anyone who’s disappeared?” he asks. 

Tower’s eyes cloud over for a second and he frowns. “Yeah.”

“Who?”

There’s a pause. Tower is still frowning like he’s thinking hard. “I don’t know,” he says eventually, “people?”

“You don’t know?”

“I don’t remember.” Tower shrugs. “Do you know someone who’s disappeared?”

“I don’t remember. No. I was just reading this sick listicle about it,” Mako says. 

“Sounds cool,” Tower says. “Link it to me?”

“Sure.” Mako rocks back and forth on his heels. “So. ‘Night, Tower.”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow. Good luck studying.”

“You too.” 

This is the point where they would usually part ways, but Mako isn’t eager to do that and Tower doesn’t make a move to walk away either. 

“So…” Mako says. 

Tower darts in and kisses him. Then he walks towards House Blueworld, calling, “Bye, Mako!”

Mako bites his lip and runs all the way up to his empty dorm and presses his smile into his pillow.

He forgets to send Tower a link to the article.


End file.
